I'm sure we can have both. Computer literacy, ability to read, write and arithmetic is not a matter of either or. In this new brave world a lack of any of the above is a recipe for disaster. I won't even start pretending to be an expert in Government but here are probably a few pointers on where the money for all the above can come from. 1. Zero tolerance (I know its wishful thinking but we are allowed to dream) and I mean really zero tolerance on corruption will unlock billions for these noble activities. 2. Savings from Government consolidation. 3. The Kroll Report Billions. It's time we as Kenyans stop paying lip service to Good Government and actually demand it. Ali Hussein CEO | 3mice interactive media Ltd Principal | Telemedia Africa Ltd +254 773/713 601113 "The future belongs to him who knows how to wait." - Russian Proverb Sent from my iPad On Apr 14, 2013, at 1:58 AM, Warigia Bowman <warigia@gmail.com> wrote:

Personally, I believe it is more important to get the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic down. If there is a small computer lab, that is fine. But until every child in Kenya has a free secondary school education, I argue that this is an example of misplaced priorities.

On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com> wrote:

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IN SUMMARY Critics say the idea is noble but many schools lack basics and laptops are a mere luxury Report shows that as high as 90 per cent of teachers are computer illiterate; who will aid pupils? http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Opinion-split-on-whether-laptops-are-a-priority...

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+1 @Rigia, I know it is still "honeymoon" time for the new government and anyone "opposing" their policy is easily seen as a spoiler/disgruntled element as it were during the KANU days.  I have tried to keep quiet since I also dont like playing the role of telling the King "he is naked when he is". It is easier, perhaps even fashionable and beneficial to cheer him on and so my apologies for the long post reiterating why the King is naked. I have read and appreciated points shared regarding my submission on Curriculum, Training of Trainers, Security & Maintenance and entry point (Form1 or Std1) and  am afraid am still not convinced.  Most submissions say we do not need curriculum because Kids can self-teach and even hack the laptops/tabalets in 5mnths @Karanja?. OK fine, then what after the 5mnth? do we want to produce 1million hackers with this initiative? What happens next after the five months Folks, we MUST have a long-term projection/objective for this initiative that includes what is taught, when it is taught, who teaches it and possibly when and what to examine. I liked the point that said content should go beyond IT and include say Kiswahili or English units being accessed on the laptop. This is very good, but it only reinforces the point about thinking through an e-curriculum because a simplistic scanning of say an English text-book and saving it as a "PDF" on  a laptop has little pedagogical value and is not what e-Learning is about. Learning has multiple facets/ecosystem that includes content, its delivery, assessment, feedback  and a simple PDF cannot begin to deliver these fronts. Throwing in one component (a laptop) of the ecosystem while wishing away the other components is really flashing down billions of very scarce Kenya Shillings. But what am saying here is NOT secret knowledge. Kenya Institute of Education (KIE, i think it has new name now?) has been doing a comprehensive job around this concept for high school e-curriculum over for the last 10years.  Why dont we just leverage on this by connecting  the two initiatives and minimizing the risks/problems? Yes, there are political promises to Standard1s but was it former VP, Micheal Wamalwa who said that a good idea (Std1) must yield or give in to a better idea (form1)? Even Obama promised the Americans to close some prisons and end the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan but failed to do so - he still won a 2nd term.  Politicians simply need to explain the rationale behind the change in policy rather than get fixed on an idea that will require a miracle to have positive returns. That reminds me, @Ikua said Goverments are not in the business of short term positive gain/returns - I just hope they are not in the business of long-term losses or failures either :-)  There was the point I agree about early exposure having advantages. Very fine, but this can only apply once you have addressed the above ecosystem around digital education. Early exposure at Std1, Form1 or even late exposure at University level within a poor digital ecosystem will take us nowhere. Yes, I did see the MIT research showing Kids doing excellent staff - including hacking without a mature supporting ecosystem in terms of teachers,curriculum, security etc. But we need to interrogate this research objective further because from where I sit, it only proves our kids are bright (which is not in dispute) but does not provide evidence to show that we DO NOT need the supporting digital ecosystem. A better experiment would be to compare this group of kids (without the digital ecosystem) against those with the ecosystem and then draw conclusions after comparing both outcomes.   Infact, I got a more relevant research example - Technology and Child Development: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program or found at http://www.iadb.org/en/research-and-data/publication-details,3169.html?pub_i... It says in its abstract:

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Although many countries are aggressively implementing the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, there is a lack of empirical evidence on its effects. This paper presents the impact of the first large-scale randomized evaluation of the OLPC program, using data collected after 15 months of implementation in 319 primary schools in rural Peru. The results indicate that the program increased the ratio of computers per student from 0.12 to 1.18 in treatment schools. This expansion in access translated into substantial increases in use both at school and at home. No evidence is found of effects on enrollment and test scores in Math and Language. Some positive effects are found, however, in general cognitive skills as measured by Raven’s Progressive Matrices, a verbal fluency test and a Coding test.

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You can read the whole publication but my take is that the digital investment at Primary level gave less than average returns in terms of improving only verbal fluency but had no impact on Maths and Language (grammer)...which may support @Rigia's submission that lets get the Kids to develop their manual writing, reading and numeric skills before moving this to the digital platform.

Finally on Security, I was surprised to read a contribution @Savver?  saying security of the laptops is the easiest to sort out - using technology.  Yes, I do understand the technology and even have it on my Galaxy (not I-tab :-).  But halloo, it requires INTERNET!  Are we saying these gadgets are going to be internet enabled (the easier bit) and they will have internet access paid for (the harder bit).  Internet access remains "costly" even for our university level where it is government subsidized, we still have many university falling behind their internet payment schedules. So unless I missed it, I still need to understand  how we shall  address the safety of these gadgets (from both the outsiders  insiders within the school). walu. NB: @Mark- I like your example because they targets high school and throws in Public-Private Partnership (i.e share risk). Maybe do another visit to a rural public and primary/elementary school in SA and share the experience.NB:  I know we all hold different views and can never fully agree. But we do need a face-2-face to thrash these out and so whether Min of IT, Min of Education, KITOS, CSK, Kenya ICT Federation, KICTAnet or whatever; I think it would be nice to interrogate this policy further in a face-2-face set up. ________________________________ From: Warigia Bowman <warigia@gmail.com> To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2013 1:58 AM Subject: Re: [kictanet] Opinion split on whether laptops are a priority in schools Personally, I believe it is more important to get the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic down. If there is a small computer lab, that is fine. But until every child in Kenya has a free secondary school education, I argue that this is an example of misplaced priorities.  On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com> wrote: IN SUMMARY

* Critics say the idea is noble but many schools lack basics and laptops are a mere luxury * Report shows that as high as 90 per cent of teachers are computer illiterate; who will aid pupils?http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Opinion-split-on-whether-laptops-are-a-priority... _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet

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The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

-- Dr. Warigia Bowman Assistant Professor  Clinton School of Public Service University of Arkansas wbowman@clintonschool.uasys.edu------------------------------------------------- View my research on my SSRN Author page: http://ssrn.com/author=1479660 -------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/jwalu%40yahoo.com The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.